Coffee on Campaign: How to Roast Your Coffee Like Civil War Soldiers

Coffee on Campaign
Confederate and Union Soldiers Roast their Own Coffee,
and You Can Do it Just Like them
and other Little Beans about their Coffee Drinkin' Habits and the War Between the States

by Paula McCoach as dictated by the Coach
The Coffee Customer Spoilers

Roastin' their own coffee was a common activity among soldiers in the War Between the States. They would carry only a few items and sometimes they would have been issued green coffee that they would roast. Their tin cup was what they had to complete the entire process. Some of them did have a frying pan, but for the most part, they would roast the beans in their tin cups.

To do this at home, use a heavy iron frying pan. Roasting in your tin cup will mess up the solder joints. Pour the beans in the pan. You can't just throw the in and leave them. Move them around. Stir them until they start to turn brown. The green beans have moisture in them and roasting them will draw the moisture out. The beans will even pop a little, not like popcorn. The roasting beans don't jump out of the pan, but they will crackle and snap some.

The beans now get a little chaff on them, but and keep stirring them. They will start to get different shades of brown. Stay away from real brown, which is like a French Roast. If you roast the beans this long, they will get an oily look to them. Different kinds of coffees have different kinds of reactions. I like mine the color of a milk chocolate bar not the color of bitter